TO: Chair and Members of the Board of Health
FROM: Graham L. Pollett, MD, FRCPC, Medical Officer of Health
DATE: 2012 January 19

2011 Click for Babies and Regional Media Campaign

Recommendation

It is recommended that Report No. 010-12 re 2011 Click for Babies and Regional Media Campaign be received for information.

Background

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), also known as the Period of Purple Crying, is the violent shaking of an infant or young child.  It is the leading cause of traumatic infant death in North America.  Up to 30% of abused infants die from their injuries.  Injuries resulting from shaking include developmental delays, seizures and/or paralysis, and blindness.  A number of health agencies in Southwestern Ontario have been collaborating together in order to provide a primary prevention program which will raise awareness of the impact of this serious form of child abuse.  The desired outcome of this series of initiatives is to achieve a substantial reduction in the incidence of SBS in London and the surrounding area.

A partnership was created between the Health Unit and London Health Science Centre (LHSC) in 2008 to implement the Period of Purple Crying program.  In the first year of the three year campaign, the Health Unit and LHSC led a community collaboration and hosted a regional SBS forum at the Convention Center.  It was effective in stimulating the development of SBS prevention strategies across Ontario and provided an opportunity to consult with experts and peers to facilitate the implementation of SBS programming.  The Southwest Maternal Child and Youth Network adopted SBS prevention as one of their regional strategic directions and provided in kind and financial support to move it forward.  Subsequent to that, all hospitals in Southwestern Ontario where babies are delivered and all Public Health Units worked together to provide education to all families who had a newborn.

By the spring of 2011, all South Western Ontario health units and hospitals had implemented the program.  Education about the Period of Purple Crying included prenatal class discussion, in hospital video information, a review of the material during well baby clinics, and home visits from Public Health Nurses.  Public presentations and agency workshops were also held.

Phase two of the project was to provide a public education and awareness campaign to facilitate community dissemination of the SBS messages.  The two key components included a regional media campaign and the ‘Click for Babies’ initiative.

Regional Media Campaign

The purpose of the media campaign was to reinforce the SBS message. It was targeted at parents of infants and future parents, family, friends and caregivers.  Over 825 radio advertisements across the region (150 in Middlesex London), billboards in 5 London and Middlesex locations and posters displayed in 12 London bus shelters were among the outreach initiatives completed.  Evaluation results through Rapid Risk Surveillance System (RRFSS) indicated the campaign’s success as 43% of the main target group (25-44 year olds) could speak about the media message.

Click for Babies Campaign Results

Click for Babies was the second public education initiative which involved distributing hand-knit purple baby caps to families who had a baby during the month of November.  Knitters of all ages from across Southwestern Ontario enthusiastically engaged in this opportunity to strengthen the impact of the message.  In Middlesex London, over 5,600 infant hats were knitted by over 300 knitters or knitting groups.  This far surpassed the goal and will allow all new babies born in London and Middlesex to receive a purple hat for the next year along with the Purple Crying DVD and education materials.  The remainder of the South West region contributed 1,260 additional hats and these will be distributed in their local communities.

Across Ontario, over 60,000 caps were submitted by more than 2,000 knitters (far exceeding the goal of 32,000 caps).  Over 50 ‘Click for Babies’ news stories were featured through various media and 30 knitting blogs were created (with 311,762 entries).  Both Facebook (40,441) and Twitter (242,463) became additional means of messaging, ensuring over 3 million people in Ontario were exposed to the SBS messages.

Future Development

The South West Shaken Baby Work Group will be implementing a regional evaluation strategy to track and evaluate the impact of the baby caps over the next year, with the goal of reaching 90-95% of families of newborn infants.  The Work Group is exploring participating in the Click for Babies public awareness campaign again in 2012.  Further planning will occur over the next year to identify strategies which will continue to address this important public health issue.

This report was prepared by Ms. Bonnie Wooten, Manager, Family Health Services, HBHC East Team.

Graham L. Pollett, MD, FRCPC
Medical Officer of Health 

This report addresses the following requirement(s) of the Ontario Public Health Standards: Reproductive Health Standard Requirement 4 and Child Health Standard Requirement 6.